Living rooms are hardworking spaces, which need to fit in several pieces of large furniture as well as (usually) a TV, and which need to work both for the everyday habits of the occupants of the house, and then adapt themselves to guests every now and again too. In a small living room, cramming everything in while leaving enough space for people to navigate through can feel like an impossible task. Just how do you arrange a sofa, armchairs, occasional chairs, a coffee table, shelving and the TV, while maintaining a sense of style and an atmosphere of comfort? We've trawled through the small houses on our pages to find three layouts that interior designers return to over and over again, and which are easy to copy in any kind of house.
Make the fireplace the focal point
Most older houses have a fireplace in the living room, whether it is functional or not. It's natural to make this the focal point of the room, with a sofa facing it, and occasional chairs placed in the window or further into the room. This is often the best solution for a narrow Victorian townhouse, where the depth of the room does not allow for facing seating across a coffee table or ottoman. The key to keeping this layout feeling spacious is the choice of furniture. In the London townhouse below, designer Tiffany Duggan designed the green armchairs in the window herself, ensuring that they would be the perfect fit. Arranging the living space around the fireplace means that the alcoves on either side also become focal points. The bookshelves on the side nearest the window offer space for the TV, while a sideboard occupies the nearer side, perfect for storing games, stationery or any tableware that doesn't have a home in the kitchen.
The temptation when you make the fireplace the focus of the room is to hang the TV on the wall above it. It's not an ideal solution, partly because in a narrow room you'll be looking up at the screen on quite a severe angle from the sofa, and partly because the TV then forms a big black hole which immediately draws the eye. In the tiny Paddington flat below, Beata Heuman came up with a stylish solution, a bespoke cabinet for the TV, covered in an elegant Fornasetti wallpaper. The TV then becomes a decorative element in the room, rather than an eyesore.
Use facing seating
If you have a little more width to play with, arranging seating so that you have a sofa and armchairs (or two sofas) facing each other across a coffee table or ottoman makes for a classic layout. In this kind of living room, the seating will not face the TV, so it makes sense if you want your space to be a place to entertain and enjoy conversations. Sure, you could lie lengthways on the sofa and see the TV in the corner of the room, but if you like to curl up as a couple or family for movie night, this might not be the one for you. It is, however, impeccably elegant and inviting. In the London townhouse below, Sarah Peake of Studio Peake has placed armchairs at one end, which create a convenient conversational circle. Behind the chairs is a small dining area.
Placing armchairs facing the sofa has a slightly more formal feel, but an ottoman in the middle creates an extra place to perch. Salvesen Graham designed the interiors for the Mayfair pied-à-terre below, adding in extra moveable seating with the upholstered stools. These add richness but are also highly functional when guests are visiting.
The corner sofa
If comfort and a place to relax informally are your priorities, you can't do much better than a corner or L-shaped sofa. Stretch out on them to watch TV, pile guests onto them for drinks parties, or curl up in a corner with a book. L-shaped sofas are the interiors equivalent of a great dress: you don't need to worry too much about coordinating other seating, just pop one into the corner and you're done. In designer Pandora Taylor's own London house below, the bespoke pink corner sofa is the star of the show. Pandora has dispensed with the traditional coffee table, just adding a small side table for books and drinks, and then footstools (also her own design) for comfort. "You always want to put your feet up on the coffee table," she says, "so I prefer using these instead."
High street shops are awash with comfortable, stylish corner sofas. In Alfred Bramsen's Hackney flat below, an IKEA sofa occupies virtually two entire walls, while a sideboard provides storage for the TV and other media. For more traditional options, try OKA, or Soho Home has some particularly glamorous models for a mid-century house.
The L-shaped sofa works particularly well for a dedicated TV room, and also makes an appealing space for kids to hang out. The room off the kitchen in the house by Salvesen Graham below functions in this way. The dark, patterned sofa from Jerome Shorter is upholstered in Svenkst Tenn ‘Baranq Linen Wine’ to make any stains or marks less visible.
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